)(*^*%$^#% ethanol

[John Jones]

With the storm coming into the Gulf I thought I should dig my generator out from all the junk in the garage and give it a test run.  It would not hit at all.  Opened the fuel cap and it did not smell like gasoline.  Got my little electric fuel pump and pumped out the tank.  Orange foul smelling gasoline.  Still would not start with fresh gasoline.  Pulled the carb off and opened it up on the bench.  Carb bowl full of yellow jello.  Flushed it out with a spray can of electronic parts cleaner then blew all the ports out with the air compressor.  Put it all back and it fired off on the first pull.  I would have been really ticked if that had not fixed it.  A couple of years ago I had to buy a new lawnmower carb because this crap had corroded the carb innards beyond repair.  I let the generator run for about 40 minutes with everything I could find to plug into it for a load and it did fine.  Then I went to the little store up the road that caters to outdoorsmen (coincidentally called The Outdoorsman) and filled up four cans with non-ethanol at a $0.70/gallon premium.  I had pumped everything out of the boat a while back so I took it along and filled it up with 16 gallons of non-ethanol too.  At least now I have a fuel supply and working generator if we were to lose power.

[Circle Hooked]

Man you got lucky, it sucks to pay more for gas that's cheaper to make but it is what it is don't settle for the Eth chit in small motors or your boat if you can help it.

[gran398]

Glad you're proactive and pulled it out well before the chit hit the fan

Good news is you have a non-ethanol fuel source, have gassed up, and are ready.

Will be interesting to see where it goes...we could use the rain this way.

[RickK]

I can't wait until they ram E15 down our throats....
Glad you got it running JJ. Do you not turn off the fuel line and let it run dry to shut it off?

[John Jones]

Rick,
I don't believe in running small engines dry because I always had more trouble doing that.  You never get all the gas out and the little bit that is left dries and leaves the brown varnish.  Back in the '80s my brother-in-law always ran his outboard dry after using it.  I never did.  He was always having to clean his carbs and I never had trouble.  Who knows

[love2fish]

I did a search but couldn't come up with anything, but I have heard from a few people who recommended to stick with one or the other when it comes to the type of gas, meaning: If you use non-ethanol gas in your tank- stick with that; but if you have been using gas that has ethanol in it combined with a gas treatment in your tank- stick with that...

The theory is that the non-ethanol gas can exaggerate the ethanol gas which could cause more problems than just using 1 or the other. (think oil in your car/truck engine: manufacturers suggest once you switch to synthetic- not to switch back to regular oil).

Might be nothing or might have a valid point... anyone else have any thoughts?

[Capt. Bob]

Might be nothing or might have a valid point... anyone else have any thoughts?

Well,
Based on reports that ethanol attacks the varnish residue left in fuel tanks/carbs/lines, I decided to set up my fuel system in the WAC based on ethanol fuel only. While non-E is available at a station outside of Tally, I went with the idea that eventually I would be somewhere with the boat and only ethanol fuel would be available. Since I had to replace my fuel tank and all the hoses due to corrosion/age, I went with this approach. I can also drain the tank during periods of extended non-use. Obviously I can't alter my 91 Yamaha motor to burn higher concentrations of E-fuel and will have to cross that bridge when I get there, if I live that long.

Still, what I can control I have and right or wrong, hopefully it will reduce ethanol caused problems, at least at the storage level.

[John Jones]

I have heard the same thing - no mixing.  
I have been running ethanol in my boat ever since it got to where that was mostly all that was available.  Never had any trouble other than slugs of water in the Racor now and then.  I have ALWAYS put in Stabil and a double dose of Seafoam with every gallon.  For the last six weeks I have been running 2 year old 50:1 premix ethanol in my lawnmower that I pumped out of the boat.  Looks and smells fine and the lawnmower seems to like it.  Doesn't even smoke enough to notice.  I think somehow I ended up with untreated ethanol in the generator and then let it sit for a year.

[Circle Hooked]

Have you seen the new e15 commercial, they run it during Nascar races, it goes not only is e15 good for Nascar but it's good for your car, don't let the extra power go to your head  

They fail to mention Nascar had to change there fuel systems just to run the crap and that guys were running out of fuel because the mpg is so bad with the crap.

[John Jones]

Yeah, my old '98 Chevy Tahoe lost over 15% fuel mileage on that crap.